I went to work yesterday unsuspecting and came home to find that a tree that stood a couple of storeys high and was one of only two really large trees still standing in our street, had been cut down without warning. Here it is in December. It stood on a block with a couple of E Citriodoras but I think this one was an E Maculata.

And yesterday afternoon.

I saw two men measuring its girth a couple of weeks ago as I was on my way to work. I thought at the time that wasn’t a good sign (the definition of “significant tree” turns on the girth of a tree and has been changed in the relatively recent past), but I wasn’t in a position to stop and ask. I wish now that I’d followed up. This tree was scheduled for destruction as part of the infrastructure works that have turned our neighbourhood upside down. But a way was found to complete them without cutting it down. We thought it had been saved. The infrastructure works are almost complete and the removal of this tree clearly wasn’t necessary for them.

All this on the same day as our Prime Minister declared too much of our native forest, what little of it remains, is “locked up” in national parks. Pardon me while I put my head down on my desk.

UPDATE

I called the Council and the tree was cut down by the property owners on whose land it stood. This is one tree in our neighbourhood not felled by the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. Apparently the Council arborist will call back to explain. I’ll spare you.

Hunh. Yes, better we keep you out of jail. This tree had set up its own trap, lifting the pavement a good deal. Maybe that was what triggered its downfall. It’s one trying to fight and losing, but I’m hating not even having put up a fight. We thought this one was safe for the time being.

Could be the roots thing was a factor. My understanding is that typically the root system of a tree is of a similar size to it’s above-ground portion. If this tree was raising the pavement, perhaps its roots were threatening other underground stuff too? Much as I love my big eucalypts, I don’t much love what their roots do to my drains on a regular basis. Could be that your big tree was threatening some of the new earthworks, or maybe would do so in the future. Which is small comfort, but maybe it helps a tiny bit to think that it might not have been as pointless a waste as it appears? I dunno. It sucks, whichever way you look at it.

Re “not putting up a fight”: You’ve fought so hard for so much in your neighbourhood lately. You can’t be everywhere and do everything all at once. Still, it’s a heartbreaking loss just the same. I’m so sorry you have to deal with this stuff. *hugs*

Thanks, lovely. I know sometimes there are good reasons, or at least, reasons. I just also know that this street will never see a tree of that size again. There is now so much concrete so close under the surface of the public land on this street that we’ll be lucky if the small trees they plant to plant can thrive. Landholders have been felling trees since we moved in and DPTI has felled half the street trees. We’ve planted about 12 on our block and now we have to wait. But that tree would have been at least as old as me.

In my previous house I lost the argument and all the E Torquatas (Coolgardie gums) in the street were cut down and replaced with golden rain trees (Koelreuteria paniculata). Needless to say it went from a street with flocks of rosellas and lorikeets in flowering season to one with no native birds. All because the gum trees dropped leaves. Unlike golden rain trees, which are deciduous!

Inspired (or maybe cautioned) by your experience here, I just phoned the local council to clarify precisely *which* tree they’re going to replace shortly on my street, as per the letter they sent the other day on the subject. The council tree guy has just confirmed that big stringybark next to my driveway (that produces lovely dyestuff) is safe! So that’s a bit of tree-related good news, for what it’s worth. Quite a relief!

Better I say as little as possible about our PM. I am hoping he has called a storm of protest down with that and… I won’t enumerate the other recent, offensive-to-me comments. I’m sure we share some outrage on quite a few of them!

Very sad to hear about yet another old beauty torn down. One of the very few things our council does well is to protect trees, thankfully. Even when we out up a shed they sent an arborist out to make sure we weren’t putting any trees in danger. Our mobile towers even have to look like a tree!

They cut down the big red gum next to the Mount Pleasant kindergarten a couple of years ago. For no reason that I could fathom. The remaining base was so big my father parked his huge four wheel drive on it for an outraged photograph. That girth far exceeded the limits. But then Mount Pleasant also cuts its plane trees to stumps just in time for the hot season – who needs shade?

It does make you despair at times, doesn’t it? The people I know who got shade from this particular tree are renting, so may not have been involved in the decision to cut it down. But now the only shade they had on the western side of their homes is gone and so is the only green thing between them and the railway line. Since we’ve already suffered this sequence of things with an earlier felling, I know how that feels…